BUSINESS MANAGER’S REPORT

Hello Brothers and Sisters —

Business Manager / Financial Secretary IBEW Local 103 It’s been a long, cold, COVID winter, but the good news is that the COVID cloud that has been hanging over our head for the last year has been lifted. More people are being vaccinated, COVID hospitalizations are decreasing, economic spending is opening back up, and so is the work. President Biden continues to prove that he is Organized Labor’s champion. We finally have a President for the first time in most of our lifetimes who has made working folks and unions the centerpiece of his agenda. The Biden Administration is in constant, close consultation with the IBEW and President Lonnie Stephenson; and it paid off for us directly in the $1.9T economic stimulus package, The American Rescue Plan.

Included in that plan were direct payments to Americans who have been suffering and hurting due to lagging COVID unemployment. Also in the plan was the Butch Lewis Act provisions that will literally save many multi-employer defined benefit pension plans — Union Pension Plans! $86 Billion in direct payments will be made to underfunded plans in jeopardy of becoming insolvent, a critical allocation roadblocked time and time again by Senate Republicans in Congress.

The Butch Lewis amendment was pushed by Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and it was Lonnie Stephenson’s persistence and work behind the scenes that kept that language afloat and in Biden’s final bill. That piece of the bill is a huge win for Unions and multi-employer pension plans like ours, and a big win for working people. The Federal Government consistently bails out big corporations and the ultra-wealthy in this country; it’s about time that working people get some help from Congress!

Next on President Biden’s agenda is his bold and aggressive Infrastructure Plan. Let’s face it, our country has been starved over the last several decades, not just of meaningful investment in infrastructure, but of investment in working people. Republicans in Congress want you to think a robust infrastructure and jobs investment is a Trojan horse for socialism and wasteful spending, but that is the same old tired trope used to hold working people and unions down!

The American people have been waiting decades for an investment in our nation’s crumbling infrastructure, and it reaches far beyond roads and bridges, as it should. We need those investments in modern infrastructure and technology, as well.

We do need to fix our highways, roads and bridges, but we also need to modernize public transit, electrify Amtrak, upgrade our shipping ports and airports, invest in electric vehicles (500K EV Charging Stations), invest in retrofitting our homes, schools and commercial buildings for weatherization and efficiency, and invest in broadband infrastructure and upgrades to the nation’s power grid, including power plants and substations.

CONTD.

We need to make upgrades to our water supply, ensure clean drinking water, and invest in new systems and treatments to help the environment by eliminating wastewater and storm water pollution. We, at IBEW Local 103, know a little bit about infrastructure and clean water projects. Two of the biggest infrastructure and clean water projects in the country were right here in Boston: the Deer Island project and clean-up of the Boston Harbor, and the Central Artery project and Third Harbor Tunnel. Those projects put hundreds of Local 103 members to work.

Biden doubled down on his support for labor by appointing Boston Mayor Marty Walsh as our Secretary of Labor. I couldn’t be happier or prouder that the US Secretary of Labor has spent as much time in our Union hall and on job sites around this city as he has done. We finally have someone in the Oval Office of the White House looking out for us while important decisions that affect workers are being made! As much as we hate to lose Walsh as Mayor, he’ll be the point man directing a great deal of that $2T in infrastructure money back to the Boston area.

We are now a year plus into COVID, and work hours are coming back. Jobs that were delayed are now moving forward. It appears the economy is kicking into high gear as more and more industries reopen and economic stimulus money is spent. Part of our local economy that has remained strong and is in high demand is the Cambridge and Boston Bio-Tech Boom. Lab Space in Boston is among the hottest in the country right now and looks like those jobs are going to continue to provide highly technical construction jobs for those of us in the Building Trades for at least the next four or 5 years

Overall, this year long COVID Pandemic has really brought out the strength and resiliency in our organization. I couldn’t be prouder of how we’ve responded and rebounded.

Fraternally,

Louis J. Antonellis Business Manager / Financial Secretary